New tubing set up

[maple flats]

You will use about 66% more saddles and somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe double the lateral line, but you will get the most sap from that design. One thing that will lessen the cost is if you have some good slopes. If yes, you can put 20-30 taps (and even as many as 35 taps) on a 3/16 lateral and the natural vacuum will be good, especially if you have 25-30' drop near the bottom of the slope. 5/16 lateral do best if you keep them short, 50' is ideal, 75 is good, never more than 100'. But 3/16 with the slope and natural vacuum, the lateral can be as long a several hundred feet.

[western mainer]

The woods will be on vacuum but may not be the first year,
Thanks Brian

[BreezyHill]

After seeing and using a vaccum tester I am going back to 5 over three on my 5/16 lats. An opening of 1/8" is valued at 2 CFM so in a length of 50-75' feet of 5/16 tubing there is plenty of room for 5 taps flow plus vac transfer

One thing that many over look: You don't need to get all of the vacuum transfer to the end of the 1600 feet.

If at 600 feet you have past 700 of your taps, you only need vac transfer past that point for the remainder (100-200 taps)

I like to stay with all 1" lines so that I don't have to have several different sizes of saddles, connectors, etc on hand.

There is a theory that oversized conductors act as a balance tank and help with surges but the larger the conductor the more weight you must support; and the more chance of pooling if adequate support is not provided. Pooling stops vac transfer past the pool.

I would strongly suggest Getting Steve Childs (Cornell University) Tubing Book. It is a valuable tool to fully understand the concept of vac transfer.

You listed that you had 2% - 5% slope...in the book it will explain that the flattest slope is what you use for you calculation since this is the point of least flow.

It also explains sizing the wet and dry lines relative to tap count.

Good Luck!

Ben

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I'm with spud. Three taps to a lateral. Personal experience on 8000+ taps. More mainline, short laterals, 3 taps to a lateral gets me the most sap. I was at a presentation in Verona a few years ago where vacuum transfer and sap flow on 5/16 lines was discussed. Each added tap after the first one meant less sap per tap. The question becomes where is the economic balance point.